This invention relates generally to packaging apparatus and more particularly to apparatus for automatically assembling and packaging groups of articles in a bale bag.
Many industries have a need for packaging groups of articles together in bags, as for shipping purposes. In the dog food industry, for example, it is desirable to package a number of bags of dry dog food together in kraft paper bale bags. Although apparatus is known for automatically opening bags and for inserting articles therein, such apparatus has traditionally been employed for packaging bakery or paper articles in bags of polyethelene or similar materials, or have been employed for packaging pourable-type goods, e.g., sugar, grain, charcoal briquettes, etc., into bags. The problem of automatically packaging several discrete articles such as bags of dog food into kraft bale bags, which traditionally has been a tedious manual operation, has not been satisfactorily addressed. Moreover, known packaging apparatus for groups of discrete articles have typically required assembly of the articles into groups at an assembly station separate from the packaging station, which has tended to complicate and reduce the efficiency of the packaging operation. It is desirable to provide apparatus for automatically packing articles into kraft bale bags that avoids such problems, and it is to this end that the present invention is directed.